The Humane Society works to provide animals with better homes. Unfortunately, that often means rescuing them from some of the most deplorable conditions imaginable.

Such was the case for 20 dogs seized from a compound near Houston. All the animals belonged to the same owner, and they were discovered in a number of shocking conditions.

Pictured above are the only three animals this site can, in good conscience, reveal. They come by way of the Click2Houston website.

The dogs were found in such poor conditions that the Humane Society and its animal cruelty teams determined that the environment itself was detrimental to the dogs’ health.

Many required urgent medical care, but had not received any in quite some time. Some suffered from eye traumas, skin diseases, tumors, and all were covered in fleas, with some having the added ailment of flea allergy dermatitis.

The kennels themselves were covered in “filth and feces.”

As veterinary teams work to save the animals, the Houston Humane Society has not revealed any details on who owned the properties, only that it was one person.

If you’re wondering what kind of punishment an individual might expect for such animal cruelty, the answer is “not much of one.”

This case is reminiscent of another animal cruelty case involving a man, who had severely neglected 14 dogs that he was supposed to be taking care of.

In that case, the conditions were so bad that the man, Nick Patterson, was sentenced to 99 years. Sounds harsh enough, but when you broke it down further to see how the sentence was structured, he would only end up serving about three years in prison.

That’s because the judge gave Patterson nine 10-year sentences with two in the penitentiary and eight suspended, all running concurrently. He had three other counts of credit fraud, each carrying three years of prison time but also running concurrently.

Further analysis showed that he would, in fact, be doing a year longer for the credit fraud than the animal abuse.

The sentencing structure caused an outrage in Patterson’s case given the condition of the animals, but that’s not atypical of how courts tend to handle animal cruelty sentences.

Given the conditions as described by the Humane Society in the Houston case and the images above, what do you think a fair punishment would be for the owner of these two properties?